Worshipping God's Judgements

Eagle eyed readers will recall that I had stated that I would write more about Emmanuel ... in fact I have failed to do this, indeed I have failed to write about anything in particular.  I however do wish to share the following observations / teaching with you, reader, and hope that it will bless and challenge you.

Firstly, as I find myself wont to do, I wish to declare before Almighty God that I want Him to be glorified, and His Word to be revealed, and pray that he will rescue me from heresy etc.

The Bible has a few things to say that bring encouragement to anyone who has witnessed the death of a baby.  Psalm 139 contains verses 13-16, which tell of God knowing about us when we were in our mother's womb, and speak of him knitting us together.  It is passage that should be of great encouragement to us that God loves us personally, that he cherishes us; we recently looked at the psalm in our Community Group, and verses 17 and 18 leapt from the page.  God has too many thoughts to count about us.  This passage speaks of a great love for us as individuals, far away from the corporate, duty bound love that we can associate with God (God is love, so he loves us all, equally etc).  This passage brings an individual element to his love: He has many happy thoughts about US: He loves my desire to make perfect picadillo enchiladas, He loves the fact way I lift and drop Jo etc.

But I'm on a tangent.  The other encouragement the passage brings is this: God is the creator of life, He oversees foetal development, He is knitting together babies before they are born.  It is doubtless this passage that spurs so many to protest against abortion; it is certainly this knowledge that allowed Stella and I to be comforted that our precious child, although far from being fully developed, was known by, designed and crafted by God.  Witnessing His ongoing craftmanship at this stage, whilst horrific and painful for us, spoke also to encourage us that if God has tended for Emmanuel to this point, He will further tend for him, in heaven.  And we (maybe just me) was struck when praying a few days later, when exhausted and drained and crying out to God, that we might get the chance to worship Him in His awesome glory with Emmanuel at our side.

Which leads on to the second passage: it is found somewhere in one of the Samuels, maybe 2 Samuel 11 or 12 off the top of my splendid head.  David has been confronted by the prophet Nathan, who tells him that God has seen his sin, and that his son, born from his illicit affair with Bethsheba, an affair compounded by his arrangment of the death in battle (called a murder by God) of her husband, Uriah the Hittite, will die.  David spends days fasting in prayer and repentance, his son dies, and then he arises, washes, dresses, goes in private, worships God, then comes out and asks for food.  He then says the profound statement (paraphrased) "I will go to him, he will not return to me".

Again, the scripture brings solace to those in a similar position (mourning the death of a baby) by answering that question we really want answered: will we see our baby's again in heaven? The existence of this verse is an encouragement to all that they will go to their children, and  that in death they will be reunited.  The existence of both these passages brings much succour to those in our position: the child we had was not even born, so can we say that we lost a child? Medically, we may not be talking about a baby yet.  Emmanuel didn't have fully formed genitals, and their gender could not be determined.  However, by standing on the words of the psalmist, we know that what God has knitted together is known by Him, and loved by Him.  And that same writer said: I will go to him in death.  This all brings great peace.

But what I meant to write about is this: God says to David that since he has brough shame upon Him by behaving in this manner, God's annointed King has brought shame upon him, He will allow his son to die.  This is the judgement that God passes on David.  Anyone who has tried to instill some discipline into a child will know that it is key to explain that we make choices, and there will be a consequence.  This is pretty much what God does here.

At this point, I must observe that I am in now way stating that all suffering come from God.  Flat out denial of that.  But I am stating that this particular event (the death of the boy) was allowed or even decreed by God.

I guess what really speaks here is that David, having wrestled with God in prayer and mourning and fasting for a week, when he finds out that his son is dead, goes immediately to worship God.  Now we hear a number of songs that encourage us to worship in the dry place, praise Him in a dark place, when the storms of life beat upon us to rely on God ... in this case God sent the storms, He dried up the water, He blocked out the light.

Job says "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away".  The song Blessed Be Your Name by Matt and Beth Redman uses this same line.  I wonder how much we have appropriated this to mean "You give, and You allow to be taken".  I am also sure that you, reader, when something precious has been taken away, have relied on God to deal with the pain, with the understanding that He suffers with us and is our comfort.  This is how Stella and I felt after Emmanuel.  But I must stress that what I am looking at is that I believe there is a difference betwen confronting the reality of an all-knowing God who allows us to suffer in His wisdom, and comforts us, and a God whose judgements cause that suffering, and through all of our pain, we still humble ourselves, suborn ourselves to that justice, and worship Him.  If God had told me that what happened with Emmanuel was as a result of my sin, would my first response be to submit to that judgement? This is an area where our declaration that God Is Just is put to the test.

I pray that if we were tested in such a way, David's response to God's justice is the place where we would find ourselves.  Any feelings he had about the portion he received were cast aside, and he worshipped God.  Let it be unto us.

Onelove.